Rolling papers and methods of packaging same

ABSTRACT

Rolling papers and apparatus for holing rolling papers are provided, In one aspect of the invention, a stack of individually removable rolling papers is provided, the stack including a spine, an initial sheet disposed on the spine, an end sheet disposed on the spine, and a plurality of sheets disposed on the spine between the initial sheet and the end sheet with each of the initial sheet, the end sheet, and the plurality of sheets therebetween having an adhesive disposed thereon and the adhesive is coupled to the spine to define a gummed edge, and the spine separates each the gummed edge from a proceeding gummed edge.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to rolling papers prepared andpackaged such that a consumer may roll a smokable tobacco product from asingle rolling paper sheet.

2. Background and Prior Art

The roll-your-own tobacco market continues to grow and in some countriesthe roll-your-own products now hold a substantial share of the tobaccomarket. This may be explained by the ability of a consumer to create atailor-made product as opposed to commercially available smokingarticles. As a result, a wide variety of papers used to roll-your-ownproducts is available to consumers.

Conventional rolling papers that are used to make self-rolled cigarettescan be made from a variety of materials such as cotton, hemp, andtobacco. Rolling papers typically have a pair of long edges and a pairof wide edges and are sold in packets of folded and interleavedoblong-shaped sheets. Rolling papers may be ungummed or gummed, that is,one marginal edge of one of the two sides of each sheet is provided withan adhesive, also known as a gumline, such as a remoistenable gum, forexample acacia gum, to seal the cigarette after it has been rolled. Suchpapers can be described as self-sticking and are preferable to ungummedpapers because they do not require considerable moistening with salivaor water to prevent the finished smoking article from unrolling while itis being smoked or to prevent pre-rolled cigarettes from unrolling whenin storage.

Gummed rolling papers are frequently packaged in a manner where they arestacked in a predetermined number and packaged by a bound pad comparableto the 3M® Post-it® office paper note pads. However, applying gums andadhesives to rolling papers presents problems. When the gum or adhesiveis applied, it seeps through the paper, contaminating the reverse sideof the paper as well as adjacent sheets in the stack. This results inthe sheets sticking together and hinders the removal of individualsheets from the pack. The prior art has solved this problem by applyinga coating of film-forming substances comprised of synthetic polymerssuch as polyvinyl alcohol, ethylene vinyl acetate, cellulosederivatives, and extruded thermoplastics to prevent penetration ofadhesive through the paper. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,431.

However, the prior art coatings are undesirable because they change burncharacteristics, accelerate combustion, and worsen product viability.Moreover, most consumers prefer smoking articles made with naturalrolling papers that do not have added chemicals or coating additives,which can be hazardous.

Another problem with the prior art gummed rolling papers is that whilerolling a smoking article, the tobacco frequently gets stuck on theadhesive strip. This ruins the adhesive strip and hence, the cigaretteby making it impossible to get a tight seal. An additional problem isprior art gummed papers are not adjustable since you cannot pre-roll thecigarette and then wet the gumline as you would with a conventionalpaper.

Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need fornew and improved rolling papers that are self-sticking. Accordingly, thepresent invention provides self-stick rolling papers that do not requireadditives or chemical coatings to prevent them from sticking to adjacentsheets in a pack, while still allowing easy release of each sheet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides for a stack or plurality of rollingpapers with each gummed edge of the respective rolling paper isseparated from adjacent papers. The stack or plurality or rolling papersmay be disposed on a flat or tubular spine. The stack or plurality orrolling papers may be disposed in a container and may be configured fromremoval from the container. The stack or plurality or rolling papers maybe stacked vertically or interleaved.

In one embodiment of the invention, a stack of individually removablerolling papers is provided, the stack including a spine, an uppermostsheet, a lowermost sheet and a plurality of sheets between the uppermostand lowermost sheets, wherein each sheet includes an adhesive tearablybound to the spine to define a gummed edge, and wherein the spineseparates each gummed edge from a proceeding gummed edge. In oneembodiment the spine is circular in order to form a roll of papers. Inanother embodiment, the adhesive is not bound to the spine, but ratheris protected by a removable strip.

In another aspect of the invention, a stack of individually removablerolling papers is provided, the stack including a spine, an initialsheet disposed on the spine, an end sheet disposed on the spine, and aplurality of sheets disposed on the spine between the initial sheet andthe end sheet with each of the initial sheet, the end sheet, and theplurality of sheets therebetween having an adhesive disposed thereon andthe adhesive is coupled to the spine to define a gummed edge, and thespine separates each the gummed edge from a proceeding gummed edge.

In another aspect of the invention, a stack of individually removablerolling paper sheets is provided, the stack including a plurality ofsheets stacked in a predetermined number, each of the paper sheets is ofsubstantially the same shape and size with a top side and a bottom side,and the top side of each paper includes an adhesive and a removablestrip disposed on the adhesive.

A rolling paper is provided, including a paper structure having foursides of a first width edge, a second width edge, a first height edge,and a second height edge, an adhesive disposed along a first width edge,and a removable strip disposed on the first width edge.

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood with reference to the followingdescription and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic side view of a stack of rolling papersthat are bound to a spine;

FIG. 2A illustrates a schematic side view n alternative embodiment of astack of bound rolling papers;

FIGS. 2B-2C illustrate perspective views of the stack of bound rollingpapers in FIG. 2A;

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic side view another embodiment of theinvention where spine is circular;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic side view of a container enclosing theembodiment shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates a top perspective view of the container enclosing theembodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates a top view of one embodiment of a sheet; and

FIG. 7 is a top view of another embodiment of a rolling sheet of theinvention described herein.

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood with reference to the followingdescription, appended claims and accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Turning now to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the invention illustrates oneor more sheets of rolling papers, or sheets 1, are attached to a binding2. The binding 2 may be interchangeably referred to as a spine. Therolling papers, or sheets, 1 may have an adhesive 4 disposed on aproximate edge of the sheet 1. The adhesive 4 may be from the groupconsisting of a natural gum, a sugar-based gum, a chemical gum, orcombinations thereof. Examples of suitable adhesives include cellulosegum, animal gum, acacia gum, sugar gum, and combinations thereof. Theweight of the adhesive 4 may vary from 8 grams per square meter (gsm) to110 gsm. Each sheet 1 of paper in the stack may have a weight from 8grams per square meter (gsm) to 110 gsm, such as from about 8 gsm toabout 50 gsm, if it is normal bleached or unbleached paper. Ifhomogenized tobacco sheets are used to make the rolling papers, then thepaper weight may be from about 8 gsm to about 110 gsm.

The spine 2 may be made of a material that allows easy release of eachindividual sheet 1 from the spine 2 and that also allows retention of aportion or all of the adhesive 4 on the sheets 1 being removed. Suitablespine materials include a plastic sheet, wax paper, a gluesheet, or acombination thereof. The spine 2 may be a flat structure. In oneembodiment of the spine 2, the spine 2 has a plurality of lateralportions 5 disposed at regular intervals along the spine 2 and providesa surface or contact 6 for coupling with an adhesive 4 disposed on eachsheet 1. In one example of the spine 2, the spine comprises betweenabout 20 and about 100 lateral portions. The contact 6 may be the samearea, width or size as the adhesive 4 disposed on the sheet 1, andalternatively may have a larger area, width, or size than the adhesive4.

The adhesive 4 is coupled to the spine 2 to define a gummed edge 7, andthe spine 2 separates each the gummed edge 7 from a proceeding gummededge 7. By forming a gumline between the sheet 1 and the spine 2, thesheets become “self-stick” since to other mechanism is required for thesheets 1 to be retained on the spine 2. In this manner, it effectivelyseparates the gummed edge 7 of each sheet 1 from the adjacent gummededge 7, thereby eliminating the need for an additional chemical coatingthat would remain on the paper when smoked. In one example of the spine,the sheets 1 may include a first or initial sheet 18, an end or terminalsheet 19, and a plurality of sheets 20 therebetween. The number ofsheets may vary based on the number of lateral portions of the spine andFIG. 1 is provided for illustrative purposes and should not beinterpreted or construed so as the limit the scope of the invention.

In another embodiment shown in FIGS. 2A-2C. In FIG. 2A-2B, the gummedportion or adhesive 24 of each rolling paper 21 is attached insuccession directly to the surface 23 of spine 22. Each rolling papersheet 21 is displaced along the spine 22 from each other such that theadhesive 24 of each sheet 21 does not contact the adhesive 24 of anyother sheet 21 as shown in FIG. 2B. The sheets 21 may be horizontallyaligned so as to have the body 25 of each sheet 21 being disposed overone or of the succeeding sheets, overlapping, such that as the consumerpulls each sheet 21 off in succession, the next sheet 21 is exposed asshown in FIG. 2C.

In a further embodiment, the rolling papers are disposed sequentially ina vertical manner, so that each successive sheet 21 is disposed on theprevious sheet 21, with the first or bottommost rolling paper disposedon the surface 23 of the spine 22. The adhesive 24 for all of the sheets21 may be disposed with the same orientation, such as along one edge, ormay be disposed sequentially with orientations of 90° or 180° from thatof the adhesive 4 of the previous sheet 21. The uppermost sheet 21 of aconfiguration may then be removed to expose an underlying sheet 21.

In another embodiment depicted in FIGS. 3-5, the spine 32 is circular inshape. The gummed portion or adhesive 34 of each sheet 31 is attached tothe spine 32 and the sheets 31 are rolled or wrapped around the spine 32forming a roll 38. The sheets 31 may be configured on the spine 32 to bedisplaced from one another such that the adhesive 34 of each sheet 31does not contact the adhesive 34 of any other sheet 31, and to allow forthe sheets to overlap one another when rolled. The spine 32 issufficiently rigid so as to support the sheets 31 in a rolled formatwithout deformation of the sheets 31. The spine may comprise a suitablematerial such as plastic to provide both sufficient support as well asallows easy release of each individual sheet 31 from the spine 32 andthat also allows retention of a portion or all of the adhesive 34 on thesheets 31 being removed.

This spine and the rolled sheets 31 can be stored in a container 39 asshown in FIG. 4. The container 39 may be provided in the form of atubular container 40, such as a hollow cylindrical tube, as shown inFIG. 5. The roll 38 may be removable from the tubular container 40 forremoval of a sheet 31 disposed on the roll 38. Alternatively, thetubular container 40 may have an opening 41 extending a long a portionor the entire length 42 of the container 40, and of sufficient size toallow removal of one or more sheets 21, for example of sufficient sizethe allow the sheets 31 to be removed one by one. In one embodiment ofthe roll 38 and tubular container 40, the sheets 31 are rolled aroundthe spine 32 in a configuration to allow the removal of a sheet 31through the opening 41 in a manner as to displace a portion of anothersheet 31 through the opening to facilitate removal.

In another embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 6, arolling paper or sheet 61 has a top side 63, a bottom side 65, anadhesive 64 disposed on the top side 63 of each sheet 61, and aremovable strip 62 disposed on the adhesive 61. The removable stripcomprises a material that is capable of contacting and being held by theadhesive until removed and still allows the retention of a portion orall of the adhesive on the sheet 61 when the strip 62 is removed fromthe adhesive 64. In practice, the removable strip 62 may allow theconsumer to partially roll a smoking article with the sheet 61 beforeremoving the strip 62 to expose the adhesive 64, and then closing thesmoking article with the exposed adhesive. The removable strip maycomprise a material selected from the group of a plastic sheet, waxpaper, or a combination thereof. Alternatively, the strip 62 is made ofa material that is non-toxic when burned, such as a cellulose paper, forexample, cellophane (cellulose and glycerin paper). The use of ano-toxic material when burned is believed to allow effective and safeuse of the smoking article in case the strip 62 is not removed from theadhesive 64.

The present embodiment of the sheet 61 would allow for the use ofcurrent rolling paper production technology and standard packaging suchas interleaving. Sheet 61 may be disposed in a container or stagestructure in either an unfolded format, known as a “flat” format, or maybe interleaved with other sheets 61. Alternatively, Sheet 61 may be aseries of sheets separated by perforations that may be rolled around aspine with the last sheet being adhered to the spine, which rolledperforated sheets may be disposed in a container 39, such as a tubularcontainer as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Each of these sheets may beseparated at the perforation from the roll of sheets for individual use.The tubular container for the perforated sheets may have an opening witha shape or separator device to facilitate separation of the sheets alongthe perforations. The embodiment of the sheet 61 as shown in FIG. 6would allow for the use of current rolling paper production technology.

Referring to FIG. 7, a second embodiment of the disposition of adhesiveson a sheet described herein is illustrated. The sheet 100 has a length,also referred to as a height, having a first height edge 110, secondheight edge 115 and a width having a first width edge 120 and a secondwidth edge 125. A first adhesive 130, an adhesive is also known as agumline, is deposited along the length of at least one of the firstheight edge 110 or second height edge 115 edge, and a second adhesive140 is deposited along the width of at least one of the first width edge120 or second height edge 125. The adhesives 130 and 140 may be disposedon the same side of the sheet.

The adhesive 140 may be disposed at a length (height) between about 1%and about 25% of the height of the sheet 100 along at least one of thefirst width edge 120 or second height edge 125 as shown in FIG. 7. Theadhesive 130 may be disposed at a width (height) between about 1% andabout 25% of the width of the sheet 100 along at least one of the firstheight edge 110 or second height edge 115 edge as shown in FIG. 7. Forexample, the adhesive 130 may be deposited at about 9% of the heightand/or width of the sheet 100 along the respective edges of a 54 mmheight sheet. Alternatively, the adhesive 130 may be disposed inwardbetween 0.5 and about 5 mm from the respective edges 110 and/or 115 soas to provide a region of ungummed paper between the adhesive 130 andthe respective edges 110 and/or 115.

Alternatively, the respective adhesive layers may be disposed betweenabout 1 mm and about 10 mm of the respective height or width of thesheet 100 along the respective edges. For example, the adhesive may bedisposed at about 5 mm of the height and/or width of the sheet 100 alongthe respective edges of a 54 mm height sheet. The respective adhesivesare disposed proximal to the respective edges. The respective adhesives130 and 140 may intersect at a corner formed by the respective heightedges and width edges.

The adhesives 130, 140 used on the sheet 100, may be protected by one ormore removable strips 112 as described above. In one embodiment of thesheet 100, a single strip 112 is disposed on both adhesives 130 and 140.Alternatively, two or more strips 112 are used for covering theadhesives 130 and 140 and may be configured to provide the optimumrolling experience. In one example, a first strip is applied to theadhesive 140 and a second strip is applied to the adhesive 130 with thesecond strip ending at line 150. In the present example, removal of thefirst strip exposes the entire adhesive 140 for sealing the paper alongthe entire width of the sheet, and then removal of the second tripcovering adhesive 130 allows for the exposure of the adhesive 130 forsecuring the filter. In a second example, a first strip is applied tothe adhesive 140 and a second strip is applied to the adhesive 130 withthe first strip ending at line 160. In the second example, removal ofthe first strip exposes the a portion of adhesive 140 for sealing thepaper along a majority of the width of the sheet, and then removal ofthe second trip covering the entire adhesive 130 allows for the exposureof the adhesive 130 for securing the filter. In a third example, thefirst and second strips terminate at line 170, allowing for a least aportion of the respective adhesives to be expose along the respectiveheight or width.

The one or more strips 122 allow the consumer to partially roll asmoking article before removing the strip 112 to expose the adhesive140. Preferably, the strip 12 is made of a material that is non-toxicwhen burned, such as natural cellophane, in case the consumerinadvertently forgets to remove the strip 112. This version of theinvention would allow for the use of current rolling paper productiontechnology and standard packaging such as interleaving.

It is possible to use existing rolling paper production technology bymodifying it to allow for the adhesive 130. Conventionally, usingcurrent production methods, the second adhesive 140 is applied to alarge bobbin in bulk. The bobbin is unrolled through a gumming machineduring which time an adhesive 140 is applied and dried. In order toimplement the adhesive 130, a separate machine to apply gum may beemployed or the gum can be applied onto each sheet after it has beencut. Alternatively, a double-width adhesive extending widthwise can beapplied to the bulk paper, after which it can be cut in two equalhalves, resulting in two sheets, each with the appropriate adhesive 130.

A filter (not shown), such as a cellulose acetate or paper filteralthough any type of filter appropriate for use in smoking may be usedwith the respective adhesives 130 and 140. The filter may be betweenabout 10 and about 17 mm in size for a convention filter. In practice,the rolling paper 100 is moistened along the adhesives 130, 140 afterrolling the paper 100 around the tobacco. The adhesive 140 is used toadhere a portion of the rolling paper 100 to another portion of thepaper, with the adhesive 130 being used to adhere the rolling paper 100to an inserted filter. The adhesive sheets 100 with two adhesive linesmay be also be packaged as described herein.

The invention also contemplates that the one or more removable stripsdescribed herein for use with adhesive disposed on rolling papers may beused on a variety of paper formats including rolling papers disclosed in“Structures For Creating Smoking Articles And Method Of Packaging Same”,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/763,865, filed on Jun. 15, 2007,which paragraphs [0019]-[0046] and the accompanying figures, areincorporated herein by reference to the extent not inconsistent with thedescription and claimed aspects herein.

As can be seen for the foregoing description of the preferred andalternate embodiments, the present invention is intended to provideself-stick rolling papers that do not require the top of each sheet tobe coated to prevent it from sticking to the sheet above it. Althoughexemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, many changes, modifications, and substitutions may be made byone having ordinary skill in the art without necessarily departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A stack of individually removable rolling papers, comprising: aspine; an initial sheet disposed on the spine; an end sheet disposed onthe spine; and a plurality of sheets disposed on the spine between theinitial sheet and the end sheet with each of the initial sheet, the endsheet, and the plurality of sheets therebetween having an adhesivedisposed thereon and the adhesive is coupled to the spine to define agummed edge, and the spine separates each the gummed edge from aproceeding gummed edge.
 2. The stack of rolling papers of claim 1,wherein the spine further comprises one or more lateral portions andeach of the lateral portions contacts an initial sheet, an end sheet, orone of the plurality of sheets therebetween.
 3. The stack of rollingpapers of claim 1, wherein the spine is a material selected from thegroup consisting of plastic, wax paper, a gluesheet, or a combinationthereof.
 4. The stack of rolling papers of claim 1, wherein the spine iscircular in shape.
 5. The stack of rolling papers of claim 1, whereinthe sheets are rolled around the spine.
 6. The stack of rolling papersof claim 5, wherein the spine and sheets are enclosed in a tubularcontainer.
 7. The stack of rolling papers of claim 6, wherein thetubular container includes an opening extending along the length of thetubular container.
 8. A stack of individually removable rolling papersheets comprising a plurality of sheets, each of the paper sheets is ofsubstantially the same shape and size with a top side and a bottom side,and the top side of each paper includes an adhesive and a removablestrip disposed on the adhesive.
 9. The stack of claim 8, wherein oneside of the stack is bound to a spine.
 10. The stack of claim 8, whereinthe rolling papers are interleaved in the stack.
 11. The stack of claim8, wherein the removable strip is comprised of a non-toxic substance.12. The stack of claim 1 1, wherein the removable strip is comprised ofcellophane.
 13. The stack of claim 8, wherein the rolling papers arecomprised of bleached rolling paper, unbleached rolling paper, orcombinations thereof.
 14. The stack of claim 8, wherein the rollingpapers are comprised of homogenized tobacco paper.
 15. The stack ofclaim 8, wherein the rolling papers have a weight from about 8 gsm toabout 110 gsm.
 16. The stack of claim 8, wherein the adhesive isselected from the group consisting of a chemical gum, a natural gum, asugar-based gum, and combinations thereof.
 17. A rolling paper,comprising: a paper structure having four sides of a first width edge, asecond width edge, a first height edge, and a second height edge; anadhesive disposed along a first width edge; and a removable stripdisposed on the first width edge.
 18. The rolling paper of claims 17,further comprising: an adhesive disposed along at least the first heightedge; and a second removable strip disposed on the at least first heightedge.